In 2014, 679 people died or were killed in California while in law enforcement custody. Thanks to data released by the Attorney General office, we can start piecing together the how and why.

St. Petersburg, Florida is adorable. Known for holding the Guinness World Record for “most consecutive days of sunshine” (768 days), St. Pete boasts a wide array of museums, beaches, and “The Finest Ballroom in the South.” “The Sunshine City” also employs a two-horse mounted police force featuring Jacob, a quarter horse who divides his sunny days between fighting crime and painting masterpieces.

Leaked emails confirm that Hacking Team has been courting government agencies in the United States as potential customers for its spyware. As the map we published last week explores, the Italian firm’s rolodex includes state and local law enforcement alongside federal intelligence agencies.

“It’s a surreal feeling for this to be over so suddenly, but it feels very nice at the same time,” No Boston 2024 member Jonathan Cohn said in the hours after the public learned that Boston’s Olympic bid would no longer be considered for the 2024 games.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has at least two systems that can locate an individual mobile device to within 25 feet, the agency admitted recently. Meanwhile, just down the halls of the Justice Department, the FBI insists that it can neither confirm nor deny that it has any records on the same system.

The FBI and DEA aren’t the only law enforcement agencies interested in Hacking Team’s surveillance wares. The Italian company’s hacked emails contain contact information for more than a hundred police departments across the United States, as well as details of in-person demonstrations, including one for the sheriff of Broward County, Florida, which has not previously been reported.

MuckRock launched the Private Prison Project exactly a year ago. It was the start of a look at the big players who stand the most to gain from America’s obsession with calling people problems and then locking those problems away. Beryl Lipton reflects on the hard-fought victories we’ve had so far, and what the future holds.

A scathing audit released yesterday by the Justice Department’s inspector general lists a slew of issues with the DEA’s management of confidential sources. Auditors found that DEA brass reauthorized long-term informants after mere seconds of review, and that the agency has weak oversight for illegal activity conducted by undercover sources.

A Hungarian born in the early 20th century, Paul (Pal) Erdős, mathematician, was well-known and well-liked, the sort of eccentric scientist from the Soviet sphere that made Feds’ ears perk up in mid-century America. But, try as they might, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was never able to find much motivation behind his movements and acquaintances beyond the math of it all.

As we’ve written about time and time and time and time again, Massachusetts has some of the worst public records laws in the country, with requesters waiting too long to pay too much to get too little. A bill currently under consideration could help change that, but it’s facing stiff opposition and needs your help.

Over the last few months, MuckRock’s Alex Richardson has been attempting to use FOIA to dig up what he could on the IRS’ Whistleblower Office. To say that it hasn’t been going well would be an understatement. To say that it has driven us to new depths of frustrated disbelief would be more accurate.

In response to a recent FOIA request, fourteen FCC complaints between 2012 and the present give us an idea of what it looks like when the kind of person who registers a complaint with the FCC also watches The O’Reilly Factor.

Initial goals for border drones were “unattainable”, the senior aviation official for Homeland Security told a congressional committee on Tuesday. Responding to ongoing pressure from auditors, DHS acknowledged that it must provide hard evidence that drones are the most efficient tool for border security.

Terrorism analysts have noted how savvy the Islamic State is on social media. The White House and think tanks alike point to Twitter support for ISIS as a key metric for the group’s strength. Similar worries once swirled around MySpace and Second Life as platforms for recruiting homegrown jihadists.

There are many reasons incarcerated individuals are segregated from the general population, and Departments of Correction across the country have multiple ways of describing them. MuckRock takes a look at New England as we begin to tease out the “who, why, when, and for how long” of solitary confinement.

As officers from dozens of law enforcement agencies descended on Watertown, Massachusetts during the manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the early hours of April 19, 2013, at least three people near the scene of the shootout were truly in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were each spotted by officers and, for different reasons, ended up spending the night behind bars.

The Willimantic, CT police department is one of the many police departments that acquired a mine-resistant MAXXPRO MRAP through the 1033 program. In response to a records request for any documents regarding the department’s use of the vehicle, the WPD provided their MRAP training Power Point presentation.

The North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC) has released its policy on use of force. NEMLEC thus joins law enforcement agencies and criminal justice experts across the country in concluding that this basic document is fit for public consumption.

A CIA quiz on domestic intelligence authorities reiterates that the New York City Police Department does not qualify as an intelligence agency when it comes to information sharing. But the CIA-NYPD relationship has a long history, and the two agencies haven’t always filled in all the bubbles correctly.

Three private prison corporations own the field of for-profit corrections. Are they running their game in your state? If you live in the South, the answer is yes.

This weekend, the Freedom of Information Act turns 49 years young. In true FOIA fashion, we’ll be delivering the goods a little later than you’d expect.

In 2013, the Pentagon’s inspector general determined that military information systems were vulnerable to compromise. The newly-released report found that the Defense Information Systems Agency failed to address many vulnerabilities due to outdated risk-monitoring procedures.

Pipes set long ago are prone to leaks, and gas companies and government alike are privy to the fact. Talks of new natural gas lines continue, but what of maintaining our existing ones?